Chapter 229 - 228: The Nine-Tiered Sky

The atmosphere within the Central Continent’s Grand Court was fundamentally different from the first day of the tournament.

The initial, boisterous arrogance of the Upper Division had been replaced by a tense, hyper-vigilant paranoia. The air crackled with suppressed Qi. Tens of thousands of cultivators packed the vast, open-air amphitheater, their eyes darting nervously between the provincial pavilions.

When the Zhao Province delegation, led by Lord Zhao Shenming and Lin Yuan, entered the arena and took their designated seats on the eastern terraces, a massive, collective hush fell over the crowd.

Thousands of eyes locked onto the man in the pristine black and white robes.

He was no longer the suicidal fool who had invoked the Ascension Clause. He was the predator who had walked into the Void Ascension Battlefield and completely stripped a Half-Step Transcendent expert of his tokens.

Whispers erupted like wildfire across the benches.

"Look at his aura... is he still at the Early Stage?"

"I cannot read it! It feels incredibly dense, but it is completely calm!"

"Did you hear the rumors? They say he didn’t even draw his sword against Chu Kuang. They say he just looked at him, and the Chu heir surrendered his tokens out of pure terror."

"Nonsense! He must have used something!"

"Whatever he did, he is sitting at 610 Merits. He is only fifty points away from the Top Five."

Lin Yuan ignored the whispers entirely. He stood at the front of the Zhao pavilion, his hands clasped behind his back, projecting an aura of absolute sovereignty. Beside him, Bai Qingyue sat in her wheelchair, her expression serene, radiating a quiet, fierce pride.

Across the vast expanse of the arena, in the Chu Province pavilion, the atmosphere was venomous.

Chu Kuang sat slouched in a heavy stone chair, his massive frame radiating a dark, liquid-red Qi that threatened to melt the floorboards beneath him. He was visibly seething. His eyes, bloodshot and manic, were locked onto Lin Yuan with a hatred so profound it bordered on physical illness. He sat at exactly zero Merits. The humiliation of the past three days, the mocking stares of the other Upper Division delegations, had driven him to the absolute brink of madness.

"I will kill him," Chu Kuang muttered under his breath, his hands gripping the armrests until the stone cracked. "The moment the next trial begins, I am going to rip his spine out through his throat."

"Patience, Young Master," a Chu elder whispered nervously, terrified of triggering an outburst. "The new rules will be announced shortly. You possess a Half-Step Transcendent foundation. You can easily recoup your losses and reclaim your seeding."

On the highest, northernmost pavilion, Xuan Mingzhe, the undisputed leader of the Merit Rankings, stood perfectly still. The tri-Dao legend did not look at Chu Kuang, nor did he look at the screaming crowds. His incredibly dense, Half-Step Soul Transformation gaze was fixed entirely upon Lin Yuan.

Unshaken Stage, Xuan Mingzhe analyzed internally, his Gravity Dao Intent subtly pulsing as he measured him. He has ascended his Dao Resolve. But his Spiritual energy feels... strange. It carries the scent of ancient destruction, and something else. Something conceptually heavier. He is a variable. A dangerous, unpredictable variable.

To the east, Jiang Wan rested his hand lazily on the hilt of his unadorned sword, his eyes remaining closed, though a faint, eager smile touched his lips. The sword only knows truth. And the truth is, this man’s blade is thirsty.

And in the isolated, quiet pavilion of the Feng Province, a sixteen-year-old boy with pupil-less, milky white eyes watched the scene unfold with absolute apathy. Feng Yao did not posture. He did not boast. He merely waited for the hurricane to begin.

Above them all, seated upon their thrones, the Five Emperors projected their divine, oppressive auras over the arena.

Emperor Tianxu raised his hand.

The deafening chatter of a hundred thousand cultivators was instantly extinguished. The absolute silence was a physical weight pressing down on their shoulders.

Stepping forward onto the hovering central dais, his robes billowing in the high-altitude winds, was Chief Adjudicator Xuanji.

The Peak Soul Transformation expert looked down at the assembled nominees, his expression a mask of cold, unyielding stone. He did not look directly at Lin Yuan, but the lingering tension from their previous confrontation was palpable in the air.

"Nominees of the Peerless God Tournament," Elder Xuanji’s voice boomed, magically amplified to shatter the clouds above. "The Void Ascension Battlefield was a crucible designed to test your capacity for survival, tactical accumulation, and raw endurance in an unregulated environment. It was a test of the wild."

Elder Xuanji paused, his sharp eyes sweeping over the battered, tense faces of the cultivators.

"The second, and final, preliminary round will not be a test of survival," Elder Xuanji decreed, his voice dropping into a register. "It will be a test of absolute martial limits. There will be no shadows to hide within. There will be no alliances to leverage. You will be judged solely on the depth of your foundation and the sharpness of your blade."

The Adjudicator raised his hand toward the sky.

"The Dao Court formally announces the commencement of the second trial: The Nine-Tiered Sky!"

BOOOOOOM!

The very bedrock of Sky Jade City violently trembled. Behind the floating dais, the air began to warp and tear apart. A colossal spatial rift tore open in the sky, revealing a massive, towering structure that seemed to stretch infinitely upward into the cosmos.

It was a pagoda of unimaginable proportions, forged from ancient, glowing star-iron and pulsing with a terrifying, ancient array light. It possessed exactly nine distinct floors, each one glowing with a different, malevolent color.

"The Nine-Tiered Sky is a vertical formation-realm," Elder Xuanji explained, his voice echoing off the massive, descending structure. "It is a proving ground utilized by the founding Emperors of the Central Continent. Within this structure, there are nine floors. Each floor contains a localized, pocket-dimension battlefield."

A ripple of nervous anticipation swept through the crowds.

"You will enter the first floor individually," Elder Xuanji continued, explicitly destroying any hope of coalition tactics. "You will not face each other. You will face the Phantom Guardians."

The Upper Division elites frowned. Phantom Guardians?

"These Guardians are not mindless beasts," Elder Xuanji clarified, his tone carrying a distinct note of sadistic pride. "They are highly advanced, simulated combat constructs forged from the residual soul-memories of ancient, fallen gods and vanquished warlords of antiquity. They possess flawless martial arts. They do not feel pain. They do not tire. And with each floor you ascend, the power, the speed, and the weight of the Guardian increases exponentially."

Elder Xuanji lowered his hand, staring directly at the six men who currently held the top spots on the Merit Rankings.

"The rules of the Nine-Tiered Sky are brutally simple," the Adjudicator announced. "You fight until you win, or you fight until you are expelled by the array to prevent your death. But the rewards are commensurate with the absolute terror of the trial."

Elder Xuanji took a deep breath, delivering the bombshell that would instantly shatter the current hierarchy of the tournament.

"For every single floor you successfully conquer," Elder Xuanji roared, his voice echoing like thunder, "you will be awarded exactly One Thousand Merits!"

The silence held for a moment.

And then, the Grand Court completely, utterly lost its mind.

"One thousand?!"

"A thousand merits per floor?! Are you insane?!"

"That means a single victory in this trial completely eclipses the entire first round!"

"The entire first round was just a warm-up! This is the real preliminary round!"

The shouting was deafening. The sheer stakes meant that the current Merit Rankings were functionally irrelevant. Someone sitting at zero merits—like Chu Kuang—could conquer two floors, secure two thousand merits, and instantly vault over Xuan Mingzhe into the number one spot.

"The first round separated the wheat from the chaff," Ye Ao bellowed from the Ye pavilion, his massive chest heaving with manic excitement, his voice booming over the chaos. "This round will separate the men from the gods! Let the Phantom Guardians come! I will shatter them all!"

"One thousand merits," Jiang Wan murmured, his hand tightening on the hilt of his sword. "A worthy prize for a true blade."

In the Chu pavilion, Chu Kuang threw his head back and laughed, a dark, hysterical sound of absolute salvation. He looked across the arena at Lin Yuan, his eyes burning with homicidal glee.

"Do you hear that, Zhao rat?!" Chu Kuang screamed, entirely abandoning his dignity. "One thousand merits! Your pathetic little tricks means absolutely nothing now! I will climb that pagoda, I will claim three thousand merits, and I will personally ensure you do not make the Top Five!"

Lin Yuan did not look at the screaming heir. He did not look at the cheering Upper Division elites, nor did he look at the terrifying, towering structure of the Nine-Tiered Sky.

He stood perfectly still, his Tri-Dao intersection pulsing rhythmically within his chest.

One thousand merits per floor, Lin Yuan thought, a cold, sovereign smile finally breaking across his face. A vertical climb. No politics. No alliances. Just raw, unadulterated slaughter against the echoes of dead gods.

Above the arena, the massive jade monolith flared with light one final time, displaying the numbers of the previous round,

MERIT RANKINGS (CURRENT)

1. Xuan Mingzhe (Xuan Province) - 1100 Merits

2. Jiang Wan (Jiang Province) - 830 Merits

3. Ye Ao (Ye Province) - 800 Merits

4. Feng Yao (Feng Province) - 700 Merits

5. Ling Chuan (Ling Province) - 660 Merits

6. Lin Yuan (Zhao Province) - 610 Merits

...